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Second season of UCL excavations concludes in Sudan

2 May 2013

Dr Jane Humphris
has recently returned from two months of excavations at Meroe in Sudan.
Completing the second field season of archaeological research for the UCL Qatar
project, The Kingdom of Kush and the
Power of Technology, Dr Humphris is very happy with the progress of UCL Qatar’s
research in Sudan.

The research
focuses on the industries that supported the might of the Kushite Kingdom,
which at one point ruled as far as most of Egypt as the 25th dynasty. Famous
for its monumental stone architecture including pyramids, palaces and temples,
during the Meroitic period (from approximately 350 BC to 400 AD) a number of
industries become of fundamental importance to the success of Kingdom. For
example, quarrying the stone to construct the monuments of the kingdom would
have been a major industry. Thus, building on the work of Dr Abdelrahman Ali Mohamed Rahma (Director General of the National
Corporation of Antiquities and Museums), UCL Qatar have entered into a
collaboration with Dr Abdelrahman as part of a QNRF funded project, to further
explore the Meroitic quarries. Dr Brigitte Cech is running the research into
the ancient quarries, and began this season with an extensive car and foot
survey of a 30 km x 30 km area surrounding Meroe Royal City. She located over
70 quarry locations and, along with mapping expert Frank Stremke, performed
detailed mapping, surveying and photography for photogrammetry and 3D imaging.
In addition, Dr Cech also collected samples that are now here at UCL Qatar
ready for analysis in our laboratories. Dr Cech will be considering issue such
as where the stone came from for particular Meroitic buildings and hence how
much stone was quarried; what techniques were used to quarry; how far the stone
was transported, and the nature of the transport. She will then be able to
consider question such as the organisation of the industry, how many people may
have been involved, and the technological knowledge employed by those involved
in this huge Meroitic industry.

Another aspect of Dr Cech's work concerns the sources of iron ore that may have been exploited
during Meroitic times. Around Meroe and other Meroitic locations, the often-extensive
remains of iron slag (the waste product of iron smelting), litter the landscape.
In some places, notably at the Royal City, these remains have created major
aspects of the Meroitic landscape in the form of huge mounds of iron slag. It
is these remains that Dr Humphris, along with archaeologist Thomas Scheibner, has been
busy excavating this season. She began the 2013 season by excavating five, 2m x
2m units within one of the biggest slag mounds in Africa, situated just outside
Meroe Royal City. Continuing to refine the methodologies she developed last
season at the Meroitic site of Hamadab, Dr Humphris processed approximately 36 cubic
meters of iron slag and associated archaeological material from this immense
slag mound, and documented the sections of the units in detail, taking further
samples from the defined stratigraphy. She excavated further remains within six
additional units around two Meroitic ruins to the south of this slag mound –
the Lion Temple and building M70, both of which appear to have been constructed
on top of iron production remains. Again, extensive processing, sampling and
recoding was carried out.

Dr Humphris also continued
the luminescence dating strategy she employed with dating specialist Dana Drake
Rosenstein. Dr Humphris and Rosenstein laid over 20 dosimeters within the
sections of trenches at the site of Hamadab one year prior to the 2013
season. Rosenstein returned to Sudan this season to collect the dosimeters and their
associated samples, including some for OSL dating under the cover of darkness,
and a black tarp. Dr Humphris has laid a further 17 dosimeters within the sections at
Meroe for collection next season. The results of the luminescence dating will
be used to refine the results of the radiocarbon dating that is ongoing.

The results and
interpretations of these excavations will assist, in combination with the
results of the laboratory analysis of the 240kg of material that Dr Humphris has shipped to
UCL Qatar, in generating and understanding of the role and impact of the iron
industries during the rise, dominance and fall of Meroe.

In addition to
the archaeological work, a party for the workmen and local community was organised
which was a big success and helped to thank those with whom we live and work
for their patience and constant assistance. Dr Humphris gave lectures at the
University of Shendi and the National Museum in Khartoum to encourage staff and
students to encourage further diaologue on archaeoly and keep people informed about the
progress of the UCL Qatar research. She also gave a two-part interview in Sudan Vision, the widest circulated
English written newspaper in Sudan, publicising UCL Qatar and our research in
Sudan.

After a busy two
months, with the samples safely here at UCL Qatar, the whole team is very excited about the results we will be generating
and the future of this long-term research.